Friday, January 25, 2013

Poem of the Week: Beth Copeland

Cerebus

"Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war."

-Shakespeare

What do the howling hounds hear that we can't?The moon sharpens its sword on the Earth's stone.Palm trees on the shores of the Tigris stand sentinel,silently releasing sweet dioxide into nightscope green air.In the mountains Kurdish children shiver beneath battered tentsof plastic sheeting, ravens spread petrol black wings.We cross desert sands to burning oil wells,poised on banks of poison water that corrodes everythingbut hooves of apocalyptic horses, wheels of humvees and tanks.When we reach the adamantine gates of Iraqit's too late to turn back.

Beth Copeland's book Traveling Through Glass received the 1999 Bright Hill Press Poetry Book Award and her second poetry collection Transcendental Telemarketer
was released by BlazeVOX books in 2012. Two of her poems have been
nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is an English instructor at
Methodist University.

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If you are interested in reading past poems of the week, feel free to visit the blog archive.

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